Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Bacon Sakatani Interview
Narrator: Bacon Sakatani
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: August 31, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-sbacon-01-0023

<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Well, in addition to the, the research you're doing, you are speaking out more about, about Heart Mountain. I mean, in particular, on one of your trips to Wyoming you spoke at a Republican fundraiser. Do you remember that?

BS: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember that.

TI: So describe, describe what that was like and some of the people you met at that fundraiser.

BS: Senator Alan Simpson was there. The only congressman from Wyoming was Dick Cheney, and I remember that event Senator Simpson was just making fun of Dick Cheney, just ripping him apart. Anyway, the main thing about that fundraising thing was to auction off this dinner plate that Senator Simpson was to sign, and so we had this auction. So I wanted that plate and so I made the highest bid, and so then I followed Senator Simpson to his house and he and his wife signed this plate for me. Oh, at the, at that fundraiser they asked me to say something since I was from the camp and I remember I said, "I hold no bitterness toward you people here in Wyoming, and I want to honor the soldiers who were killed from the camp." And I guess I didn't know too much history about the camp at that point. I would've blasted them. [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] But what was the reaction of, of your talk, your speech?

BS: It was a good reaction. People came up to me, I guess seeing a Heart Mountain person for the first time, so it was a good reaction. And at that time I met Senator Simpson for the first time and so I have seen him a number of times since then.

TI: And you mentioned that you, you wanted to acknowledge the veterans who came out of the camps, so what did that lead to? Wasn't there a, like a monument or something that happened because of --

BS: Yeah, so after I got back, well, I got hold of my classmates, the high school class of 1947, and so we raised the funds, we found the names of those soldiers who were killed during the war and we got this plaque made and we had it placed on a big boulder. And in 1986 we had this dedication ceremony at Heart Mountain, and so we had Congressman Norman Mineta who was at the camp during the war and we had our editor of the newspaper, Bill Hosokawa, and we even had the great Minoru Yasui come to our dedication, so it was a pretty good event that our Heart Mountain High School class of 1947 did.

TI: That's a good story.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.